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Recently I’ve been listening to Harry Potter audio books in Italian and yesterday I made my own magical wand. Wands are an important tool in the wizarding world and I was reminded of my own history with them.

It started with one of my assignments in Mr. Irwin’s class at La Colina Jr. High. This lesson was in Trompe-l’œil (French for “deceive the eye”). It is a technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. I still have both the wand and the drawing, seen below.

I’ve always been praised in a classroom setting for my ability to complete the assignment. But in college, by the third year, there are no assignments. I realized, when looking back at old images, that I made something add but similar during that time. Although, as you can see in the photo below, the scale of this wand is much larger.

One unique detail that connects both the new wand and old wand in the presence of a face. The wand from 1995 has a face carved in the wood and the wand from 2019 has a red jasper stone skull. I don’t know when I carved the face in the wood but based on my original pencil drawing it was after that. Perhaps the origins of this tradition are tools used for protection like a stick, club, or staff? There is bound to be a rich and complex history of wands with faces for me to research.

Historically, Red Jasper was known as a stone of vibrancy and endurance, a talisman of warriors and a promoter of justice, protection, and life. CrysalVaults

The wand just I made is a collection of symbolic and meaningful beads for me, similar to a charm bracelet. They are wrapped in copper wire and affixed to a bamboo chopstick. It’s photographed above with and below without the large paper bowl I’ve been using to display a collection of stones and gems. I simply love the combination of color and light. I’m not inclined to draw the wand like I did in the past. I am enjoying photographing it and might assemble more of them because I like the way they look and the assembling of small objects.